Since the late 1980s, Astrida and Stephen Schaeffer of North Berwick, Maine have lived parallel lives: modern careers and family life and the life of a 14th century family as members of the Society for Creative Anachronism. The Schaeffers discussed the SCA with Jeanne McCartin of Fosters.com. (photos)

A new draft for a SCA Ltd Social Media Policy has been approved by the SCA Ltd Board for release for comment. This new draft is a modified version of the SCA Inc (Society) policy that is in effect in the USA, NZ and (until we have our own) Australia.

The discovery of a glass dish in a burial mound in Japan provides new evidence that contact existed between eastern Asia and the Roman Empire in the 5th century. The clear dark blue dish is believed to have originated in Sassanid Persia. (photo)

Each year, Current Archaeology magazine gives an award for the Research Project of the Year. Senhouse Museum Trust and archaeologists from Newcastle University have been working for over four years at the Camp Farm site near Maryport, and they have been named the 2015 recipients of the award.

Kameshima Zentar Umakai, Silver Buccle Principal Herald, reports that at Their recent Passing of the Ice Dragon event in the Barony of Rhydderich Hael, Their Majesties Titus and Anna Leigh of the Kingdom of AEthelmearc placed three of Their subjects on vigil to contemplate elevation to the Peerage.

In September 2014, metal detectorist Derek McLennan discovered over 100 artifacts in a field near Dumfries, Scotland. Among them was a 1,200-year-old Viking pot, heavy enough to contain something, but too fragile to open. Now archaeologists have been able to determine what is in the pot with the help of a CT scan. (photos)

Members of the Richard III Society have long believed that the last medieval king of England got a bad rap from the conquering Tudors and their bard, William Shakespeare. Now, with the discovery of Richard's remains, others are beginning to reconsider the monarch. (audio interview)

Plans are afoot for the revamping of the Binchester Roman Town in County Durham, England, with the purchase of the archaeological site by the owners of nearby Auckland Castle. Among those announced are the construction of a glass walkway over the dig, and a visitors' center.

Master Caelin on Andrede reports that he has created an album of photos from the Elfsea/Steppes Sunday in the Park which took place recently in the Kingdom of Ansteorra. The photos are available on Flickr.

The Falcon Banner reports that Sir Caius Equitius Rectus Xerxes was the victor of the March 28, 2015 Crown Tournament in the Kingdom of Calontir. Sir Xerxes was inspired in his endeavor by Mistress BelAnna de Rouge de Anjou.

Medical researchers have long sought the origins of the sexually-transmitted disease syphilis, but most now believe that the pox was brought back by Christopher Columbus from one of his voyages to the New World. LiveScience recently published an Op-Ed from the Conversation.

This spring, viewers of the BBC and PBS will be treated to a video version of the Hilary Mantel book Wolf Hall set in the court of Henry VIII. Since its announcement, there has been discussion of the size of the actor's codpiece, perhaps smaller than is historically accurate. Jane Huggett of The Guardian joins the conversation.

It's true that Shakespeare's plays bent gender over backwards by requiring female roles to be played by male actors, but a new version of Henry IV, staged at the Donmar Warehouse in London, took the practice even father by presenting an all-female cast set in a women's prison. (photo)

In 2014, the city of Washington DC was privileged to host two copies of the Magna Carta, one permanently housed in the National Archives, and another on loan from Lincoln Cathedral in England, displayed at the Library of Congress. Geoff Edgers of the Washington Post looks at the differences between the two documents.

A new study by Gregory Clark of the University of California, Davis and Neil Cummins of the London School of Economics reveals that those people with Norman surnames are more likely to have a higher social status in the UK that those without.

Art historians around the world are never quick to validate a "lost" work by one of the great masters. Thus is the case of La Bella Principessa, a small, "pen-and-ink portrait of a Florentine woman with a Mona Lisa-esque smile," believed to have been created by Leonardo da Vinci. (photo)

For Halloween 2014, Bryan C. Keene of the J. Paul Getty Museum blog Iris, chose to look at some of the frightening images of medieval, illuminated manuscripts in the museum's collection. The article is richly illustrated with examples. (photos)

The traditional Pennsic Blood Drive, held the middle weekend between Peace Week and War Week, is getting an extreme makeover this year, as blood collection will now follow fully period medical practices.